Kota and Hyderabad Coaching Centers Highlight Regulatory Loopholes

Coaching institutions are expressing concerns about the loopholes in the recently issued guidelines for regulating coaching centers by the Ministry of Education. They are particularly questioning the absence of any mention of online coaching and whether coaching institutes for civil services and other subjects are exempt from regulation, as the guidelines primarily focus on school students and school hours.

One of the main points of contention is the age restriction mentioned in the guidelines, which states that students below 16 years old cannot be enrolled in coaching institutes. This raises questions about institutes that offer classes such as abacus, vedic mathematics, robotics, and coding for younger students.

The union government released these guidelines for states to adopt and create their own regulations for coaching centers. The need for such guidelines arose after a series of suicides in Kota, Rajasthan, a prominent coaching hub. In 2023 alone, there were more than two dozen suicides among young students who were preparing for major admission entrance tests like the JEE Main and Advanced for engineering, and the NEET for medicine.

The document acknowledges that private coaching centers have been a cause for concern due to issues such as student suicides, fire incidents, inadequate facilities, and teaching methodologies. It also highlights the lack of an existing policy to regulate private coaching. Shockingly, data from the National Crime Records Bureau reveals that over 13,000 students died by suicide in 2022.